Le Dung earns third Olympic ticket for Vietnamese fencing

Nguyen Thi Le Dung managed to beat Tiffany from Chinese Taipei 15-11 in the women’s sabre final match at the Asia and Oceania Zonal Qualifiers in Wuxi, China on April to make it through to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil this summer.

Nguyen Thi Le Dung is the 12th Vietnamese athlete to qualify for the 2016 Rio Games.

On her way to the decisive clash, Dung performed outstandingly, recording consecutive wins over opponents from Thailand, Singapore, Chinese Taipei and Kazakhstan in the preliminary round before finishing off Au Sin Ying of Hong Kong 15-10 in the semifinals.

This was the third Olympic ticket secured by Vietnamese fencers, following the two previous won by Nguyen Thi Nhu Hoa (women’s epee) and Vu Thanh An (men’s sabre) at the same tournament on April 11.

Vietnam’s 2012 Olympian Nguyen Tien Nhat missed out on a berth in Rio after losing 11-12 to Alexander Chernykh of Kyrgyzstan in the men’s epee quarterfinal match this afternoon.

As of April 12, Vietnam has 12 athletes eligible for the Rio Olympics: swimmer Nguyen Thi Anh Vien; wrestlers Vu Thi Hang and Nguyen Thi Lua; race walker Nguyen Thanh Ngung; shooters Hoang Xuan Vinh and Tran Quoc Cuong; fencers Vu Thanh An, Nguyen Thi Nhu Hoa and Nguyen Thi Le Dung; and three weightlifters.

The Rio Games is scheduled to take place from August 5 to 21, with Vietnam targeting to have 15-17 Olympians.

(Source: NDO)